BIOGRAPHY
Carol Sloane studied painting at Skidmore College and graduated with a BS in Art in 1967. She wanted to live in the country more than she wanted a career in art and settled in Midcoast Maine to farm in 1972.
She raised sheep, had a large garden and worked in Camden, sewing at the Leather Bench until she started her own business making and selling fabric handbags. She spent 23 years marketing her work, in Perspectives, a fine crafts gallery in Camden, and at wholesale and retail craft shows around the country until, in 1994, she became obsessed with a desire to paint again.
For six consecutive winters she took classes at the Art Students League of New York and became an active member of the Maine art community. She was fortunate to attend a number of artist residencies, including a 6 week stay on Monhegan Island in 2002. She was a founding member of the Downtown Gallery in Washington Maine, and an active member of the Gibbs Library Art Committee, hanging shows and showing her work around the state.
In 2017 she moved to Rockland, where she gardens on a smaller scale but with great enthusiasm, and she continues to follow her muse.
EDUCATION
2001 - 2002 Vermont Studio Center, January thru mid February
2000 Vermont Studio Center, winter months ( Jan, Feb, Mar )
1995 - 1996 Round Top Center for the Arts, study w/ Elizabeth Knox
1994 - 1999 Arts Students League of New York (Jan, Feb, Mar)
1993 Farnsworth Art Museum, study w/ Ann Ayvaliotis & Cynthia Hyde
1968 University of Wisconsin/Madison, graduate work w/Robert Arneson
1967 - 1968 University of Wisconsin/Madison, graduate work, w/ Don Reitz
1967 Bachelor of Science, Fine Arts, Skidmore College
WORK EXPERIENCE
2006 Beginning drawing and painting classes, Downtown Gallery
2005 - 2006 Painting teacher, Arts Center at Kingdom Falls, Montville ME
2005 - 2006 Presenter, Summer Institute for Educators, Portland Museum
2002 - 2004 Drawing teacher, Arts Center at Kingdom Falls, Montville, ME
1996 - 2007 Partner, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
1978 - 2000 Carol Lahm Sloane Fabric Handbags, manufacturing and sales
1977 - 1987 Member of Perspectives.. artisans in cahoots, Camden, ME
CURRENT RESUME
ONE PERSON SHOWS
2023 "WATER: SALT/UNSALTED", Granite Gallery, Tenants Harbor ME
2022 “Fabric as Vehicle”, Gibbs Library, Washington, ME
2019-2022 “ Deck the Walls”, Art at Bartlett Woods, Rockland ME
2018 “Contemporary Scrolling, Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, ME
2013 ‘Water and Wood’, Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth ME
2013 ‘Marking the Water’, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
2011 ‘Domestic Partners’, Caldbeck Gallery, Rockland, ME
2011 ‘Walking the Woods’, Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME
2011 ‘Tidal Rocks/Canyon Walls’, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
2008 ‘Mixed Greens’, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
2007, 2008 ‘Winter Paintings, Black Duck Gallery, Lunenburg, NS, Canada
2006 ‘Domestic Partners’, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
2004 ‘Walking the Dog’, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
2003 ‘New Work’, Elan Gallery, Rockland, ME
2002 ‘Waking up in Sacred Places’, Washington, ME
2002 ‘Reflecting on Reflections and Patterns’, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
2000 ‘Moving Parts’, Round Top center for the Arts, Damariscotta, ME
2000 ‘Walking Time’, Railroad Square, Waterville, ME
1999 ‘Passing Time’, Camden Library, Camden, ME
1998 ‘Gourd and Shellscapes’, Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
1995 ‘Childhood Friends’, Gibbs Library, Washington, ME
GROUP SHOWS, partial list
2023 Landings Gallery, Rockland, ME
2022 Gallery Two, Rockland, ME
2021 ‘Art Matters’, Belfast Salon, Portland and Belfast, ME
2017 ‘Paperwork’, Yvette Torres Gallery, Rockland, ME
2015 ‘Brushwork’, Betts Gallery, Belfast, ME
2014 ‘All Too Brief’, Jonathan Frost Gallery, Rockland, ME
2014 ‘Monhegan Artist’s Residency 25 Years’, Thos Moser Gallery, Freeport, ME
2014 ‘Monhegan, Unfailing Muse’, Archipelago Gallery, Rockland, ME
1995 – 2012 Downtown Gallery, Washington, ME
2005 – 2012 Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Falmouth, ME
2006 ‘Into the Woods’, Maine Art Gallery, Wiscassett, ME
2005 ‘Portland Biennial’, Portland Museum, Portland, ME
2004 ‘Where Land and Water Meet’, Tignish Cultural Center, PEI, Canada
2003 ‘Drawing on Ideas: 10 Artists’, Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME
2003 ‘Six Women Engaging in the Maine Landscape’, CMCA, Rockland, ME
2002 ‘Downtown Gallery at the Blaine House’, Augusta, ME
2002 – 2013 ‘Art Makes a Difference Invitational’, CMCA, Rockport, ME
RESIDENCIES
2006 Cill Railaig Project, Ballenskelligs, Ireland
2005, 2010 Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency, Taos, NM
2002 Carina House Residency, Monhegan Island, ME
2000, 2001, 2002 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I paint to evoke the passage of time, the movement of light, the joys and insights of the shifting relationships of the spaces that I see. My studies of the world around me began as quite literal landscapes, but as I have developed my conceptual techniques, I have expanded my horizons to wider range of subject matter.
I paint in oils on canvas in my studio. I also work outside directly from nature in oil stick on 140 lb watercolor paper. In addition to working in the endless variety of the Maine landscape, I have had the opportunity to document landscapes in New Mexico, Ireland and Nova Scotia.
Walking has a huge impact on my life. I have built a 1/2 mile long public installation, a labyrinth in my hay field, to share my experience. (see Creating a Labyrinth: an Artist's Path)
CREATING A LABYRINTH: AN ARTIST'S PATH
Courier Gazette, 2010
Since 1985, artist Carol Sloane has been walking daily on "The Loop', a circular path that takes in her land and several local gravel roads near her home in the town of Washington, Maine. Walking and seeing and thinking, she began to record this ritual on paper, on canvas and even in a long horizontal moving scroll. Her study of Time, Light and Pathways has evolved over the years through changing landscapes of Maine woods and islands to New Mexico's Rio Grande canyons and hills.
It's not surprising that these investigations led to the labyrinth. As an ancient meditation tool, the labyrinth has been around for at least 4000 years . Labyrinths define a sacred pathway to the center and back out again.
In New Mexico last spring, Carol began a series of pathway and maze paintings, exploring their abstract patterns in colors, as if mapped from above.
This summer, she took a different set of tools to work: handsaw, clippers and a push mower. In the middle of a 12 acre hayfield near her studio, Carol chose the site for her Labyrinth: a wooded knoll of pines and alder saplings. And with characteristic energy and determination, she continued, over the next 2 ½ months to create interweaving circular paths. Defining the center by measuring two intersecting diameters of the area, she then made concentric paths by clearing brush and some saplings and banking the paths' sides with branches and small logs. Then, in an intricate process, she broke and joined the circles at regular points. As the artist described her work on the labyrinth, It put in mind the weaver's work where a line of thread is stopped, joined, repeated ; and Carol's artistic history has included work with fabrics.
At four regular points, the labyrinth extends into the meadow itself and then returns into the woods. In places along the paths, little saplings line the way or appear in the middle of a section. No part of the paths is the same, as the viewpoint through the tall pine verticals to the sunlit meadow beyond constantly shifts.
There are many kinds of labyrinths, some of stone or banked earth, some of planted hedges, some within buildings such as cathedrals, where paving mosaics define the path for prayer and meditation. Carol Sloane's Washington Labyrinth combines an ancient tradition with a very contemporary trend of environmental and installation art. It offers a puzzlement, a beautiful walk, an outing for fun, or a space for meditation.
In fact, this is the second labyrinth to appear in the town of Washington. Liberty Graphics designer Bob Richardson and his wife Susan made one in their hayfield earlier in the year.
Carol Sloane's Washington labyrinth is located on Old Union Road about ¾ mile beyond Washington Village. There is a sign on the right indicating a parking area, and two large banners mark the entrance to the labyrinth, where you'll find a box with maps. In hunting season, be aware that the Labyrinth is open only on Sundays. When the snows come, Carol intends to create snowshoe trails. She invites all to come and experience a walk through the Labyrinth. And don't forget to write in the Guest Book; it's at the beginning (and end) of the trail.
This variation of the medieval Christian labyrinth design is a plan of the maze known as Robin Hood's Race at Sneinton, near Nottingham, England, which was plowed up in 1797. Several ancient turf labyrinths were named after the popular hero Robin Hood, alluding perhaps to his reputation for rushing into Sherwood Forrest and thus evading capture by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Sadly, none of the turf mazes bearing his name have survived.
There are no junctions or choices to be made, yet you will find that the twists and turns of the single path are remarkably compelling to follow, whether walking, running or on paper. The plan of this maze also bears similarities to that in Chartres Cathedral, France, though with the addition of bastions. It is thought that at some time it was miscut, creating this irregular pattern.